


The Pirate

by Raine_Wynd



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Comment Fic, First Loves, Inspired by Photography, M/M, Second Chances, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raine_Wynd/pseuds/Raine_Wynd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Jolly Roger sticker brings Duke back to where Nathan's always wanted him. Slash, pre-OT3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pirate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [killabeez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/killabeez/gifts).



> Killa posted a pic of the interior of Nathan's truck, which showed a Jolly Roger sticker on the dashboard, which led to this story. Thanks for the inspiration, chica!

The most frustrating part about Duke, Nathan thought, was that he remembered they'd been friends for three weeks one amazing summer. Nathan had just gotten a truck, and they had that mess with Angela, who'd been "playing the field" (her words) but forgot to tell everyone involved, and both Duke and Nathan had been hurt. Everything had been going fine until Duke screwed it up, but Nathan remembered how he'd tasted every time he looked at that Jolly Roger sticker on his truck's dashboard.

Nathan didn’t think Duke would remember that summer, especially since both of them kept each other at arm’s length. Almost two decades had passed, after all, and they weren't the horny, lonely, messed-up teenagers who’d decided to do something different. Then the unicorns showed up in town. Suddenly everything was rainbows and kittens and things out of a little girl’s fantasy bedroom. One of the unicorns had even attacked Nathan for trying to get the girl to stop. As Audrey had stayed behind to talk to the girl’s parents, Duke had been the one to take Nathan home once the medics had determined he was just bruised from where he hit a rock on the ground when he’d dived out of the way of the unicorn. Even then, Nathan didn’t think Duke noticed the sticker in Nathan’s truck; Nathan had been too busy arguing over the fact that Duke didn’t trust Nathan to drive himself home.

He was wrong. Three days after the unicorn incident, Duke showed up at Nathan’s house, said, “You kept the sticker,” and kissed him.

For a moment, Nathan stood there, stunned.

“Forget I just did that,” Duke said, sounding disgusted, and turned to walk out. “Stupid, stupid,” he muttered under his breath.

“Wait,” Nathan said hastily.

Duke stopped and turned. “If you’re planning on punching me –“ he began, and Nathan knew he couldn’t. For one crazy summer, they’d been more than friends; they’d been two men figuring out something special together. Nathan had seen enough glimmers of that something special over the last few years to wish they had it still, and it had killed him to know he couldn’t ever have that again. Nobody had ever touched him the way Duke had; Duke been the first to take the time to figure out just how to turn on a man who couldn’t physically feel. Nathan had been so sure that that the love they’d shared once hadn’t meant as much to Duke, that Nathan would continue to miss what was in the past, and continue to think that maybe he ought to finally remove that damned Jolly Roger sticker from his dashboard so he wouldn’t keep getting reminded.

Now that Duke had kissed him, maybe those assumptions were all wrong, like a number of assumptions Nathan had been making about Duke which had been proven wrong, starting with Duke’s sense of what was right. The Duke Nathan had thought he’d known wouldn’t have been anywhere near that unicorn mess.

Nathan knew he had to act quickly. He closed the distance between them and kissed Duke. Startled, Duke tensed, but then kissed him back joyously. “Missed you, damn it,” Duke swore when he finally broke the kiss.

Nathan chuckled. “Yeah? Didn’t look like it from where I was standing.”

Duke laughed briefly. “You should talk,” he said, nipping at the juncture of Nathan’s neck and shoulder. Nathan groaned; there were certain places on his body that were less dead to sensation, and that was one of them.

“Don’t wanna,” Nathan told him. “You’ll stop.”

A rueful laugh met his words. Duke didn’t stop. His hands made short work of Nathan’s button-down shirt, and he lavished attention on Nathan’s nipples. The few women Nathan had been with had tended to overlook that part of his body, and he’d always made sure to focus more on his lover so they’d overlook his lack of physical response. Now Duke made Nathan feel once again as though his body was something worth touching, worth worshipping, and made him remember that summer of exploration. Watching Duke was more stimulating than the touch itself, and arousal surged through Nathan with unexpected force.

He groaned and realized abruptly that they were in the middle of the foyer. He wanted Duke in his bed, not against the wall like they were teenagers again. “Duke, stop.”

Duke froze.

“Not here,” Nathan said, kissed him gently, and then led him to the bedroom. Duke relaxed once he recognized their destination and wasted no time in assisting Nathan out of his clothes before stripping out of his own. Nathan gently urged the other man onto the bed and then kissed him before using his hands and tongue to map out the differences in this older, more muscled body he’d once loved.

Duke still was a talker in bed, Nathan noticed, and Nathan was grateful for it. He needed the verbal reinforcement to know he was doing the right things, and he wanted to get Duke to that point where even words failed him. It seemed, though, that Duke was equally determined to see that Nathan lost control first, and soon they were both breathless with passion. Nathan won the first round, and the taste of Duke was as sweet as he’d remembered, perhaps even sweeter now that it wasn’t a memory. Duke wasn’t content to leave it there, though, and they spent the night exploring the many ways they fit together.

Morning came all too quickly. Nathan found himself staring at his ceiling, silently hoping that Duke wouldn’t spoil it. Gifts came so rarely in Nathan’s life that he wanted to package this moment and keep it untarnished, but he knew the odds weren’t in his favor. Maybe he wanted too much; he’d learned that with Audrey.

“You’re thinking too damn loud,” Duke griped, startling him. “Don’t you know it’s always been your choice, your rules? You were afraid of what the Chief would think. He never told you he knew about us, did he?”

Stunned, Nathan flipped to his side and stared at Duke. “Did he threaten you?”

Wearily, Duke sat up and ran a hand through his head. “He didn’t have to,” Duke said tiredly. “He just asked if I thought we were doing a good thing. That’s all. You know how he said things.”

Nathan swore. “Meddling – he always thought he was trying to do the right thing for me. It never was, not entirely. You were the best thing about that summer,” he admitted, sitting up. “Nothing else made sense then. We thought the world was ending, and so we decided to be pirates.” He snorted. “For all the good it did – all we did was cruise up to the hills and make out in my truck.”

“I know,” Duke agreed quietly. “And you said you loved me, and I was the idiot who ran.” He met Nathan’s gaze evenly. “I might still be an idiot, but I’m not the same idiot I was,” he offered. “But I’ve been a pirate, and it’s not been the same without you. Damn it, Nathan, we were going to do this life together. I had to run; I couldn’t stay in Haven with you here. It was too much.”

A smile twitched Nathan’s lips. “Good to know,” he said solemnly.

“Even if you’ve kept trying to arrest me for things I haven’t done. I think you just like seeing me in handcuffs.”

“Maybe,” Nathan allowed. He was beginning to enjoy this. Possibilities were spinning in his head. “Maybe it’s been the only way I could see you without you taking off on me.”

Duke shook his head. “That won’t work now, you realize.”

“I know,” Nathan agreed. “I just don’t know how this is supposed to work.”

“Look, I know you haven’t dated much, but it still works the same. You call me, we have dinner, a movie, something where we’re not just winding up in bed all the time, not that I mind that part because that part’s awesome, preferably not something where we have to save Haven from yet another one of us.”

“You want a real date?” Nathan raised an eyebrow, but he was secretly thrilled. He’d dreamed of taking Duke out on a date; he’d been too afraid of what might happen.

“Yeah. I think I’m worth it, don’t you? Look, if you’re embarrassed, I can say the Grey Gull’s closed for a private party.”

“I’m not nineteen anymore, and I’m not ashamed to be seen with you.” A little surprised at that, Nathan took a moment to consider his own words, and then realized he meant them. He was the chief of police now, and everyone in Haven knew he’d been a little different all of his life.

Duke watched him worriedly. “You sure about that?”

“Yeah, I am,” Nathan said. “We have bigger problems than who I’m dating. It’ll be news, but people have been talking about us for years.”

“It won’t be the same and you know it. You’ve never been comfortable when people talk about your private life.”

“Especially since I haven’t had one?” Nathan asked. “It’ll blow over. You know stuff like that does.”

“So maybe it does,” Duke agreed. “I’m not sure I like it when you’re this agreeable.”

Nathan laughed. “You did tell me I needed to get laid more often.”

Duke winced. “Yeah. You’ll excuse me while I kick myself for being so hurtful when I said it.”

“Hey,” Nathan said, not liking the look of guilt on his lover’s face. “You’ve always been a little more vicious than the rest.”

Duke winced again. “I was a bully,” he said. “And I liked you, but I couldn’t show it. Not until that summer, and then when I came back, you acted like you’d never forgive me.”

“I couldn’t,” Nathan admitted. “You left, and when you came back, you didn’t act like you cared.”

Duke looked at his hands. “I cared too much,” he admitted softly. “I went out into the world and saw so many things. Even fell in love with someone who was just like me.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t keep her and my father demanded I come home, so I did. Not sure I can keep you, either.”

“That goes both ways. We’ll figure it out.” Nathan was suddenly certain they could; they were older now, wiser.

A little desperately, Duke added, “I know you have feelings for Audrey still, and I won’t stand in the way.”

“You have feelings for her too,” Nathan observed, and waved off Duke’s knee-jerk denial. “Maybe we can work on that together,” Nathan suggested, and watched Duke’s eyes widen with surprise before narrowing in swift speculation. “Later,” he said, certain that if he let Duke talk, they’d be on their way to something outrageous, and Nathan didn’t feel up to handling that level of insanity. He wanted them to be on stable ground before they did something crazier than go with the feeling that the two of them together was right and good and worth every risk. Later, they’d talk it out, maybe even fight about it, but he wanted to see Duke’s face alight in pleasure again. “Right now, you’re in my bed, you pirate.”

Laughing, Duke looked at him. “And what are you going to do about it?” he dared.

Grinning, Nathan proceeded to kiss him, thinking that maybe this time, he could win a permanent place in his pirate’s heart.

The end 


End file.
